Prabal Gurung / Resort 2013

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One has to wonder how many great collections of recent memory came together thanks to Google. The search engine is never acknowledged in show notes, exactly, but we have to assume that it plays a major role in the modern designer’s process. Take Prabal Gurung’s new resort collection, for example. While recently in India and in Nepal, where he was raised, Gurung remarked upon the beauty in the sculptural decay of the garbage strewn in the streets, wondering to himself whether there was an artist out there working from that same vision? A couple of quick clicks later and he had his answer: Canadian sculptor Aaron Moran, who works in reclaimed wood, fragments of rubber, and found objects with a rigid, clean-lined precision.

The artist’s rigorous geometry influenced not only Gurung’s custom-made fractal prints, but the very shape of his clothes, including an electric aqua and red A-line shift with a wedge-cut hem. Likewise, his easy shift was all spliced planes, coming together seamlessly, so to speak, in a warped harlequin pattern. Riffing on those hard edges, he showed an airy peplum top with high-contrast binding paired with a slim skirt done in a digitally enhanced tropical print. “I wanted to bring together a juxtaposition of florals and severe angles,” he said. “Not too cute, not too sweet.”

And yet, while Moran’s work provided some convenient inspiration, Gurung’s look—with its bold colors, strong graphics, and exact tailoring—was truly his own, and will delight his customers of many ages and inclinations. They’ll have Prabal to thank, of course, but we can also chalk up another behind-the-scenes success to Google’s secret algorithm.